Double consonants are common in Italian. They are also common in French, but in French consonant length is not phonemic. The French word femme (woman) is pronounced [fam]. In Italian consonant length is phonemic.
The following examples illustrate that consonant length is phonemic in Italian:
capello (hair) cappello (hat)
fato (fate) fatto (fate)
pala (shovel) palla (ball)
sete (thirst) sette (seven)
Many Italian words with double consonants have single consonants in other Romance languages. Here are examples with words in Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese:
(academy) accademia académie academia academia
(cat) gatto chat gato gato
(cold) freddo froid frío frio
(four) quattro quatre cuatro quatro
(insect) insetto insecte insecto inseto
(mouth) bocca bouche boca boca
(seven) sette sept siete sete
(sleep) sonno sommeil sueño sono
(soup) zuppa soupe sopa sopa
(year) anno an año anho
Double consonants are also known as geminates and are very common in Italian. French also has many double consonants, but in French they are neither long nor phonemic. In many cases, Italian words with double consonants correspond to words with single consonants in other Romance languages.
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